Coupler locking mechanism



Feb. 2, 1965 e. w. COPE COUPLER LOCKING MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 6, 1961 FIG. 4

Inventor: Geoffrey W. Cope his Attorney Feb. 2, 1965 Filed Sept. 6, 1961 a. w. COPE 3,

COUPLER LOCKING MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventor:

Geoffrey W. Cope his Attornev United States Patent Ofiice 3,168,202 Patented Feb. 2, 1965 3,168,202 COUPLER LOCKING MECHANISM Geoffrey W. Cope, Williamsville, N.Y., assignor to Symington Wayne Corporation, Salisbury, Md., a corporation of Maryland Filed Sept. 6, 1961, Ser. No. 136,284 4 Claims. (Cl. 213-146) This invention relates to railway car couplers and has for its primary object to provide an improvement in the locking mechanisms of such couplers, whereby automatic opening of the knuckle as the coupler is unlocked is ensured despite service wear between certain parts of the lock and coupler head which heretofore has impeded such opening.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved coupler locking mechanism, which, while effective in ensuring automatic opening of a knuckle despite service wear, requires but a simple and inexpensive modification of either the coupler head or the lock.

An additional object of the invention is to provide an improved coupler locking mechanism for ensuring automatic opening of the knuckle, which, when applied as a modification to a lock enables the modified lock to be substituted for a conventional lock without change in any other part of the coupler.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter in the detailed description, be particularly pointed out in the appended claims, and be illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a coupler embodying the improved locking mechanism of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view, on a reduced scale, taken along lines 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary side elevational view on an enlarged scale of the lock removed from the coupler;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary sectional view on the section of FIGURE 1 showing the relation of a conventional lock and coupler head in new condition; and

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 4, but showing the relation between the lock and head resulting from service wear.

Referring now in detail to the drawings in which like eference characters designate like parts, the improved coupler locking mechanism of the present invention may be applied with advantage to any automatic knuckle coupler in which the ability of the lock to open the knuckle is impaired by service wear. Among standard couplers, the condition rectified by this improvement is especially pronounced in the case of A.A.R. alternate standard Type F couplers, quite often rendering it necessary, after service wear, to open a knuckle by hand to complete the unlocking of the coupler. It is therefore an application of the improvement to a Type F coupler that has been illustrated as exemplary of the invention.

In common with other A.A,R. standard and alternate standard couplers, the illustrated Type F coupler has a coupler head 1 pivotally mounting a knuckle 2 which is locked in closed position by the engagement of its tail 3 by a lock 4 mounted in a cavity 5 in the head. Supported in raised position on the tail 3 of the knuckle when the latter is open, the lock 4 is freed from the tail when the knuckle is swung closed and drops by gravity to a lower position in the coupler head 1 in which its head 6 engages a side of the tail, thus effecting automatic locking of the coupler in a coupling operation. Conversely, the

illustrated and other standard couplers are unlocked by actuation of a lock lift assembly 7 mounted in the coupler head 1 either above or, as here, below the lock and adapted to lift the lock by pulling or, as here, pushing.

In the course of the lifting, the lock 4 is first raised support 12. Further lifting of the lock 4 brings a fulcrum or pivot lug 13 integral with and projecting forwardly from its head 6 into engagement with the underside 14 of a rearwardly extending or projecting shoulder or ledge 15 integral with and on the coupler head 1 at the front of the cavity 5. Since applied through the locklif assembly by design at a point to the rear of the center of the lock 4, the lifting force on the lock causes the lock, on engagement of the lug with the shoulder 15, to fulcrum or pivot on the lug against the underside 14 of the shoulder and forces the lock leg 5 to swing rearwardly. In process, a rearwardly facing cam surface 16 on the lock leg engages a cooperating front surface on the adjoining arm 10 of the knuckle thrower 11, forcing the latter to pivot about its vertical axis. The opposite or other arm 17 of the knuckle thrower confronting a side of the knuckle tail 3 opposite that facing the lock 4, thereupon exerts pressure against that side of the tail and forces or throws the knuckle to open position.

As in other types of standard couplers, the fulcrum lug 13 of the illustrated coupler is substantially centered on and narrower than and disposed substantially at the lower extremity of the lock head 6 and, as it approaches the shoulder 15, rides or is received in a vertically extending, downwardly and rearwardly opening groove or slot 18 interrupting the front wall 19 of the cavity 5, the slot, in turn, being interrupted toward its upper end by the underside 14 of the shoulder. In the illustrated embodiment, as in the conventional F coupler, the shoulder 15, as a whole, is inset into and disposed forwardly of the rear surface 20 of the front wall 19 of the coupler head 1 which bounds the cavity at the front above the knuckle tail opening 21 and the groove 18 extends upwardly past the rear face 22 of the shoulder 15 substantially to the latters upper extremity. On its part, the confronting front surface 23 on the lock head 6 is interrupted centrally by a forwardly projecting rib or tongue 24 which extends vertically substantially from the upper extremity of the head down to and merges with the lug 13 and is of the lugs width.

With the confronting rear and front surfaces 20 and 23 on the front wall 19 and lock head 6, respectively, vertically overlapping and engaging in the normal or locked position of the lug, and the groove 18 of substantially the width of the rib 24 and lug 13, a tongue-and-groove interlock between the head of the lock and coupler is provided over the entire range of relative movement of the lock and the coupler head which aids in maintaining these members in correct lateral alignment. Longitudinal alignment of the lock and the coupler head is provided initially by the confronting surfaces 20 and 23, both of which are substantially flat and parallel in the normal or locked position of the lock and, in the Type F coupler, are vertically disposed in that position.

In some types of standard couplers, the lock head 6 rides on the rear surface 20 of the front wall 19 to the point of engagement of the lug 13 with the shoulder 15. However, this is not so in the case of the Type F coupler. Instead, to prevent possible interference with fulcruming of the lug 13 on the shoulder 15, the lock head 6 is disengaged and wedged or forced rearwardly from the vertical rear surface 20 of the front wall 19 prior to engagement of the lug with the ledge. This, in the conventional Type F coupler, is accomplished by inclining or sloping the front face 25 of the rib 24 and the inner rearwardly facing face 26 of the groove 18 below the shoulder 15, such that they are disposed obliquely and slope upwardly and rearwardly relative to the related ofthe confronting surfaces 29 and 23. With this arrangement, the rib 24 and lug 13 in riding upwardly along the rear face 22 of the ledge 15 and the inner face 26 of the groove 18, respectively, in the upward progress of the lock, coact to wedge the lock head 6 rearwardly away from the rear surface 29, until, at the point at which the lug and shoulder engage, the only fore and aft or longitudinal contacts between the lock and the front wall are those of the lug with the inner face 26 of the groove 18 and the rib 24 with the rear face 22 of the ledge.

While eifectively preventing interference by the rear surface 29 of the front wall 19 of the coupler head 1 with fulcruming of the lock 4 and the consequent rearward swinging of its leg 9 by which the knuckle thrower 11 is actuated to throw the knuckle 2 open, the dependence in the Type F coupler on contact of the rib 24' as well as the lug 13 with the confronting face on the front wall 19, bears the primary responsibility for the frequent inability of the knuckle of such a coupler to be thrown open automatically as, the coupler is unlocked. In all types of standard couplers, the front wall 19 of the cavity or chamber in the coupler head 1 is recessed above the shoulder sufficiently to accommodate the forward swinging of the upper frontcorner 27 of the head over the range of swinging of the lock with the diiference that, in the Type F coupler, the upper front corner of the lock head 6, during the swinging of the lock, engages the cor-' responding corner 28 of the cavity 5 at the junction of the cavitys top wall 29 and a central abutment 3% on its at front wall 19, the lock then being in the position inter- .mediate to the limits of its swinging which is' designated as A in FIGURE 1. Thereupon, the locks fulcrum is shifted from the underside 14 of the shoulder to the upper front corner of the cavity, and the lock continues its swing to the final position designated as B. i

As indicated in FIGURE 4 showing the relation in new condition of the parts of the lock and coupler heads involved in the swinging, both at the outset and indot-anddash line at the moment the fulcrum is shifted to the upper corner 28 of the cavity, neither the shifting of the fulcrum nor the engagement of the rib 24 with the rear face 22 of the shoulder 15 interferes with the intended operation of a new coupler in throwing the knuckle open. The engagement of the rib with the rear face of the shouder, coincident with that of timing with the shoulders underside 14, does introduce a second fulcrum against which the lock must swing at the'outset, the rear face 22 of the shoulder. I shape of the lug and the arcuately convex or rounded configuration of its nose or tip 31, which directlyfen gages the underside of the shoulder, is designed to enable the lock to rock, fulcrum or pivot on the shoulder about the hook, the introduction of the rear face of the shoulder as a second fulcrum does no harm when the coupler is new, since swinging of the lock about the second fulcrum merely causes the hook to slide rearwardly on the underside of the shoulder. Unfortunately, this non-interference by the additional initial fulcrum with the desired action of the lock does not continue to obtainas the coupler is subjected to wear. Instead, asshown in FIGURE 4, it has been discovered that. the repeated engagement of the lug with the shoulder each time the coupler is unlocked causes the nose 31 of the lug, in hammering against the underside of the shoulder, gradually to indent the underside and ultimately form a pocket or However, even though the hook' socket for the nose, asindicated at 32 in FIGURE 5. It

is at this stage that the lock ceases to be capable of actuating the knuckle thrower to throw the knuckle open. The nose 31 could be displaced from the pocket'32 by a downward force, but no such force is available, the force applied through' the locklift assembly in lifting the lock, although applied to the rear of the'locks center to facilitate swinging, having no downward component. As a consequence, once the pocket has been created by service 4- wear, the only solution now available is for the operator to throw the knuckle open by hand, a dangerous pursuit long ago condemned by the National Safety Appliance Act.

The solution of this invention for the above dilemma posed by service wear, particularly in Type'F couplers, is both simple and inexpensive. It involves the elimination of the rear face 22 of the shoulder 15 as another or second fulcrum at any stage in the swinging of the lock 4 relative to the coupler head. Although accomplishable by cutting back either the rear face of the shoulder or the confronting face on the lock head 6, here the front face 25 of the rib 24, to increase the initial longitudinal spacing therebetween such thatthese faces in new condition will be spaced from and out of contact with each other over the range of swinging of the lock and remain so spaced despite service wear, increase in the spacing by cutting back the confronting face on the lock head is the preferred solution, as simplifying curing of the defect in used couplers, as well as eliminating the potential defect in new couplers. This is illustrated in FIGURE 3 in which the improved contour is shown in solid and the old in dot-and-dash line.

In the case of the Type F coupler, there is, attendant the cutting back of the confronting face on the lock head, reduction in the area of the contacting surfaces available for wedging the lock head away from the rear surface 20 on the front wall 19 of the coupler head, since, as shown in FIGURE 1, the inclination or angularity of the front face 25 of the rib 24 relative to the adjoining front surface of the head is required to be reduced, either as a whole or over the area adapted to confront the rear face 22 of the shoulder 15... However, this is of no moment since, as in some other types of standard couplers, the contact between the lug and the inner face 26 of the groove 18 is entirely adequate for the purpose. Nor, with the improvement, is any obstacle posed by formation of a wear pocket 32 in the underside 14 of the shoulder, to shifting of the fulcrum from the shoulder to the upper corner 28 of the cavity 5, engagement of the upper corner 27 of the lock head 6 with the top wall 22 of the cavity in such case providing the downward'force for displacing the nose 31 of the lug from the pocket.

With spacing of the rear face 22 of the shoulder 15 from the confronting face 25 on the, lock head 6 now ensured throughout the range of swinging of the lock, the only initial fulcrum'is the underside 14 of the shoulder and there is no potential source of interference either to automatically incident to unlocking of the coupler throughout the latters service life;

.Havingdescribed my invention, I claim:

1. In a railway coupler having a head, a knuckle pivoted to the head, and a lock in a cavity in the head positionable to lock the knuckle closed and liftable from locking position to, release and by swinging throw open the knuckle; the improvement comprising 3. lug projecting forwardly from a head of said lock, a shoulder in said coupler head at a front of the cavity therein, said lug on lifting of said lock; engaging an underside of said shoulder to. enablesaid lock tofulcrum on said underside in swinging to throw the knuckle open, and a front face on'said lock head above said lug and confronting and spaced rear- ;wardly from said shoulder on engagement thereof by said lug, the spacing of said front face and shoulder being such as to prevent contact therebetween over the range of relative swinging of said lock and coupler head despite service wear on parts thereof engaged during said swinging. V

2. In a railway coupler having a head, a knuckle pivoted to the head, a lock in a cavity in the head positionable to lock the knuckle closed and liftable from locking position to release and by swinging throw open the knuckle, and a lug projecting forwardly from a head of the lock, a shoulder in the coupler head at a front of the cavity therein, the lug on lifting of the lock engaging an underside of the shoulder to enable the lock to fulcrum on said underside in swinging to throw the knuckle open; the improvement comprising a front face on said lock above said lug and confronting and spaced rearwardly from said shoulder on engagement of the underside thereof by said lug, the spacing between said front face and shoulder being such as to prevent contact therebetwen over the range of relative swinging of said lock and coupler head despite service wear on said underside from repeated engagements thereof by said lug.

3. In a railway coupler having a head, a knuckle pivoted to the head, a lock in a cavity in the head positionable to lock the knuckle closed and liftable from locking position to release and by swinging throw open the knuckle, a shoulder in the coupler head at a front of the cavity therein, and a hook-shaped lug projecting forwardly from a head of said lock and having an arcuately convex nose engageable with an underside of the shoulder on lifting of said lock to enable said lock to fulcrum on said underside in swinging to throw the knuckle open; the improvement comprising a front face on said lock above said lug and confronting and spaced rearwardly from said shoulder on engagement of the underside thereof by said lug, the spacing between said front face and shoulder being such as to prevent contact therebetween over the range of relative swinging of the lock and coupler head despite indentation of said shoulder underside by repeated engagements thereof by said nose of said lug.

4. In a railway coupler having a head, a knuckle piv; oted to the head, a lock in a cavity in the head position able to lock the knuckle closed and liftable from locking position to release and by swinging throw open the knuckle, a hook-shaped lug projecting forwardly from a front surface of a head of the lock and having an arcuately convex nose, and a shoulder in the coupler head at a front of the cavity therein, the nose of the lug on lifting of the lock engaging an underside of the shoulder to enable the lock to fulcrum on said underside in swinging to throw the knuckle open; the improvement comprising a rib substantially centered laterally on and projecting forwardly from said front surface of said lock head, said rib extending vertically from said lug along said surface substantially to an upper extremity thereof and interfitting in the locked position of said lock with a groove in a front wall of said cavity opening onto said shoulder, and a front face on said rib sloping downwardly and forwardly relative to said front surface and confronting and spaced rearwardly from said shoulder on engagement of the underside thereof by said lug, the spacing between said front face and shoulder being such as to prevent contact therebetween over the range of relative swinging of said lock and coupler head despite indentation of said shoulder underside by repeated engagements thereof by said nose of said lug.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,568,312 Wolfe Sept. 18,1951 2,948,414 Metzger Aug. 9, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 351,781 Great Britain July 2, 1931 620,157 Canada May 16, 1961 

1. IN A RAILWAY COUPLER HAVING A HEAD, A KNUCKLE PIVOTED TO THE HEAD, AND A LOCK IN A CAVITY IN THE HEAD POSITIONABLE TO LOCK THE KNUCKLE CLOSED AND LIFTABLE FROM LOCKING POSITION TO RELEASE AND BY SWINGING THROW OPEN THE KNUCKLE; THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING A LUG PROJECTING FORWARDLY FROM A HEAD OF SAID LOCK, A SHOULDER IN SAID COUPLER HEAD AT A FRONT OF THE CAVITY THEREIN, SAID LUG ON LIFTING OF SAID LOCK ENGAGING AN UNDERSIDE OF SAID SHOULDER TO ENABLE SAID LOCK TO FULCRUM ON SAID UNDERSIDE IN SWINGING TO THROW THE KNUCKLE OPEN, AND A FRONT FACE ON SAID LOCK HEAD ABOVE SAID LUG AND CONFRONTING AND SPACED REARWARDLY FROM SAID SHOULDER ON ENGAGEMENT THEREOF BY SAID LUG, THE SPACING OF SAID FRONT FACE AND SHOULDER BEING SUCH AS TO PREVENT CONTACT THEREBETWEEN OVER THE RANGE OF RELATIVE SWINGING OF SAID LOCK AND COUPLER HEAD DESPITE SERVICE WEAR ON PARTS THEREOF ENGAGED DURING SAID SWINGING. 